UH men get jump on competition at C-USA indoor meet

The Cougars took a long leap — several long leaps, actually — toward their fourth consecutive Conference USA Indoor Track and Field Championship.

UH scored 29 of a possible 39 points in the long jump on Friday at Yeoman Fieldhouse to emerge as the first-day leader. The Cougars have 40 points, followed by Rice (30.5) and UTEP (30).

If the UH women are going to win their first title since 2006, they’ll have to run down the competition on Sunday. The Cougars are fourth in the women’s competition with 25 points, trailing UTEP (41), defending champion rice (35) and Tulsa (30).

Junior Jonathan Williams led the UH dominance in the long jump, winning with a season-best 23-11.75. Junior Chris Carter took second (23-10.75), junior Lamar Delaney took third (23-9.00), junior Thomas Lang took sixth (23-4.75) and sophomore Isaiah Sweeney took seventh (23-4.75).

Freshman Miles Beal-Ampah picked up a fourth-place tie in the high jump with a 6-6.75. Another freshman, Cameron LaCour, posted a personal best (and NCAA provisional mark) of 7.90 in the 60-meter hurdles semifinals.

Freshman Megan Frausto gave the UH women a boost with a second-place finish in the pentathlon with a personal-best 3,676. Junior Brittan Williams finished seventh. UH also picked up three points in the pole vault with junior Shannan Arnold’s sixth-place finish (11-7.75). Senior Quin’shundolyn McPherson took fifth in the long jump (19-2.5), one spot ahead of sophomore teammate Tai’Shea Reese (19-2).

The final day of competition begins at 11 a.m. Saturday with the men’s heptathlon, the 60-meter hurdles, the pole vault and the 1000-meter run. Field events begin at 1 p.m., running finals at 3 p.m.

UH junior Wesley Bray enters Saturday leading the heptathlon with 3,000 points after four events. Rice’s Phillip Adam is right on his heels with 2,987 points, with teammate Jack Spinks in third with 2,804.

Some noteworthy first-day performances at Yeoman Fieldhouse on Friday:

UTEP’s Blessing Okagbare had dominant performances in the women’s long jump and 60-meter dash prelim. Okagbare won the long jump, tying the C-USA meet record of 21-10 she set in 2008. She clocked a 7.18 in the 60, an NCAA automotic time that was .04 away from the Yeoman Fieldhouse record. UH’s Grecia Bolton was second in the 60 with a provisional time of 7.35.

Memphis senior Steffen Nerdal won his third consecutive C-USA weight throw title, breaking his meet record with an NCAA automatic performance of 74-07.25.

Tulsa swept the 5,000-meter titles, with John Beattie winning his second consecutive men’s title and Alex Becker prevailing in the women’s competition.

Rice junior Ari Ince won her second consecutive pole vault title (12-07.50).

Tulsa won the women’s distance medley relay with a meet-record 11:37.32.

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The UH men’s basketball team should have some bounce in its step when it steps on the court to play the SMU Mustangs at 7 p.m. Saturday at Moody Coliseum.

The Cougars (14-13, 6-7 in Conference USA) are coming off a stirring 92-75 victory against the Memphis Tigers. UH did it all against the Tigers, shooting 50 percent and more than holding its own on defense and the boards.

Kelvin Lewis led UH to a 66-60 victory against SMU in a Feb. 13 meeting at Hofheinz Pavilion, going off for 29 points. The Cougars have won their past nine encounters against the Mustangs.

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Chastened by a its worst start to a baseball season since 1974, the UH lit into Santa Clara pitching with a vengeance on Friday night at Cougar Field.<P.

The Cougars (1-3) banged out 20 hits to pick up their first victory, 17-9.

Matt Creel went on a 4-for-6 rampage, with two doubles, a triple, four runs scored and seven batted in. Caleb Ramsey also went 4-for-6, scoring three times. Two others, Chris Wallace and Zak Presley, had three hits apiece.

UH coach Rayner Noble did some more tweaking of his lineup, which generated some offense last Sunday with Joel Ansley in center field and the leadoff spot. Zac Presley slide into the right field spot previously manned by Creel, who slid to first base. Shortstop Blake Kelso, last year’s leadoff hitter, has slide into the No. 3 spot in the order.

The Cougars fell behind early, 3-0, before putting up four runs in the third inning, five in the fourth, three in the fifth and five more in the sixth. Though UH right-hander Michael Goodnight labored (five innings, eight hits, five runs, three walks, eight strikeouts), he lasted long enough to improve his record to 1-1.

Pitching matchups for the rest of the series against Santa Clara (1-3):

Coming off a 30-point thrashing of UTEP, the UH women’s basketball team is back in action Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion.

The Cougars take on first-place Tulane at 2 p.m.

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The Cougars softball team cruised to a 7-1 victory against Jacksonville State on Friday at the LSU Tiger Invitational. A scheduled evening game against LSU got postponed because of weather.

UH (5-6) broke open the game with a four-run rally in the seventh inning. Ashleigh Jones and Katy Beth Sherman had two hits apiece for UH, which got production up and down the lineup. Seven different Cougars scored; five drove in a run. Freshman Bailey Watts (4-3) threw a six-hitter, allowing one unearned run and striking out eight.

Because of the weather, the invitational was chanced from a seeded tournament to a round-robin format. UH is scheduled to play Southern at 11 a.m. Saturday and LSU at 1:30 p.m.